IF you were set the mission of proving Championship cricket was better than Twenty20, yesterday at Derby was not the best day to build your case.

It was, as they say, one for the purists as Derbyshire grafted to an overall lead of 153 with a score of 134-4 on the third day of their match against Leicestershire at the County Ground.

The 94 overs of play produced a total of 206 runs. Call it compelling or call it circumspect but you would never describe it as scintillating.

The fact that the day's two outstanding batting performances came from men who scored 62 runs between them in a combined 282 balls faced said it all.

They were, however, both precious performances for their teams in the circumstances.

Leicestershire skipper Paul Nixon set the tone in the morning as he and Tom Smith took up the job of hauling their team closer to Derbyshire's 208 all out from an overnight position of 117-6.

Resuming on seven not out, it took Nixon 36 balls to move from 10 to 11 and 109 balls to find the boundary for the first time. By the time he was out for 26 – ironically, pulling rashly to midwicket – he had faced 135 balls in just over three hours.

Once Nixon went, the rest of the Leicestershire batting order soon followed, as Graham Wagg and Charl Langeveldt mopped up the tail to leave Tom Smith stranded with a fine 47 not out against his name.

Wagg finished with 4-45 in one ball short of 27 overs and Langeveldt 4-39 in 26 to illustrate what a very disciplined Derbyshire bowling performance this was.

Just as with the post-tea period the day before, when the bowlers did everything but take the wickets, they stuck to their guns after failing to make the breakthrough before lunch and were rewarded shortly after the interval.

With Leicestershire all out for 189, it was time for Jake Needham to take up the Nixon mantle. Needham, averaging 10 in the Championship this season after scores of nought and one in the last match at Chelmsford, was a surprise choice to open the Derbyshire second innings in the absence of Dan Birch, who was sent home on Saturday morning with an upset stomach.

He responded to the call to grind it out with determination and poise. By the time he was caught at first slip, the ball was 48 overs old and Needham had scored 36 off 147 balls with two fours.

It may not have been pretty but, as far as Derbyshire were concerned, it was job done.

Needham lost two partners, with Chris Rogers caught behind for 20 off a good delivery from Garnet Kruger and Dominic Telo lbw for the same score.

He saw them to 121-3 and that was a position Derbyshire would have happily accepted going into the final day, with Wavell Hinds and Rikki Clarke in the middle, but it was not to be.

With less than three overs to go, Clarke aimed an extravagant pull at a length ball from Nadeem Malik and had his off stump pegged back.

It was a mind-bogglingly bad choice of shot from the captain, especially given the timing of it and the context of the match situation, and a million miles removed from the good sense shown by Needham.

Clarke took a startlingly good catch at second slip late in the Leicestershire innings but continues to frustrate with the bat and must now hope his dismissal does not harm Derbyshire's cause on the final day.